On Sunday 18th September the judges for the Silver Lapwing competition came to judge Vine House Farm. It is run by the Farming and Wildlife Group , known as FWAG and sponsored by Waitrose.

Vine House Farm won the Silver Lapwing Award in 2001. Winners of the award are not allowed to enter again for the next ten years.

The Silver Lapwing Award is the most prestigious and longest running farming conservation award. Entries are received from all over England and Wales. Six finalists are selected, one from each FWAG region.

The judges this year were Jim Egan from FWAG, Ian Dalton from the Leckford Estate in Hampshire, Waitrose’s farm, and Charles Beaumont who runs Trees Please, a tree nursery in Northumberland.

The winner will be announced at a presentation on the 18thOctober in the House of Commons. Obviously the judges could not give anything away but Charles Beaumont’s parting words were “I can see why you have won the award before.”

My wife and I with some of our family will be going to the presentation.

Nicholas